The Ramón y Cajal Scholarship (RyC) is a Spanish post-doctoral scholarship, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, that allows outstanding early career researchers in foreign countries to establish themselves in Spanish research institutions.[1] Together with the more junior Juan de la Cierva scholarship, it is the most prestigious nationally-funded research scholarship to follow a scientific career in Spain.[2] In fact, it is considered the main talent attraction strategy[3] for Spain to counteract its scientific brain drain.[4]
History
The scholarship honors the Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal. It started back in 2001,[5] and it has been awarded every year since then, to date (January 2023).[6] It provides 5 years of funding, after which the institution is encouraged to open a permanent position to the researcher,[1] although this is often not guaranteed.[7][3]
During the European debt crisis, the funding was drastically reduced, reaching a 40% cut,[8] and even skipping a call.[1] Especially since then, there have been regular complaints about the RyC program, concerning its bureaucracy,[9] employment instability,[10] unfair process,[11][10] harsh conditions,[12] obscurity,[13] precarity,[14] or gender discrimination.[15]
In 2022, and thanks to Next Generation EU funds, the RyC budget increased to 138 million euro, with 647 positions opened,[16] although the increase won't continue in 2023.[17]
Impact
Research on the programme[18] shows the applicants are typically in their mid-thirties, highly productive and highly mobile, over the national average.
The scholarship has been funding prestigious researchers in Spain, typically bringing them from overseas, across all disciplines, including Biology,[19][20] Physics,[21] Mathematics,[22] Medicine,[23][24] History,[25][26] Geology,[27] Ecology,[28][29] Social sciences[30] or Engineering.[31] The scholarship supports institutions across all Spanish regions, although Catalonia concentrates the most, with 26% of the total as of 2023.[32]
